Heraclea

Rhiannon Giddens - Julie

Coven - The White Witch of Rose Hall

Should all archetypes be able to solo? Yes. And they can. Some better than other. I generally don't try to solo on characters that lack significant mez protection; not what I build those for anyways. Should all archetypes be able to solo at +4/8? Probably yes, and I have not tried every flavor of squishy support character, but I suspect most of them could if they knew what they were doing. Speed and efficiency are going to be the issues; heavy reliance on slow CCs is going to slow you down. All archetypes can, surely; some builds might struggle. Is there a difference in performance expectations for content below level 50 versus level 50+? Yes, Incarnate characters should be godlike on less than incarnate content. The incarnate content tends to bore me, mostly for overreliance on too few, overtuned mob types. Should players be using Invention Origin enhancements by a specific level or range? Yes, especially if you already have a roster of level 50s. I play collectively; I craft what drops and converter gamble until it turns into something someone needs. I find a character that could slot and catalyze it, and use catalysts and unslotters to get IOs where they need to go. I often start slotting catalyzed IOs when they become available, knowing the character can grow into them. Do players who can solo +4/8 at level 50 have an outsized impact on teams or other players? Maybe this is as intended? Really, it's minor. Rather see the rest of the team doing their best. It does get kind of annoying when you're on a level 49 blaster on a team full of judgment nukes. But that's a very marginal situation.

Judas Priest - Invader

The Commodores - Brick House

The limitation of the battle cry is one reason why I use the numpad for banter binds. Almost all of these include the $target variable to identify the mob or character I have targeted. Setting these up is fairly simple: /bind numpad1 L The power of Cheese compels you, $target! The L here directs the chats that these things generate into Local rather than whatever channel you are defaulting to at the time (important). For things that you want to appear in team chat, substitute G for the L. This is also needed if you want them to appear in a cutscene: /bind numpad9 G Possessed by a dust-bunny! What will your momma think? These binds are actually useful. They serve the purpose of letting your team know, say, that you have targeted the AV, especially useful on fights like Kurse or Schadenfreude. Or announcing that you've found a Hamidon Bud away from the main league. The more successful and interesting I find a character, the larger her repertoire will become. They can be used for other things, such as Laird of Kinfyre's: /bind numpad0 l Go rin yisel' agin' a wall, $target! which announces things like Speed Boost and Recall Friend.

Sofi Tukker - Bats**t

My characters form a collective. There are level 50s I still enjoy playing. I also have many up and coming levelling characters. The level 50s play mostly in order to support the rising characters. I have a large enough roster that I can probably supply what the team or raid leader wants for any given team or league. I can fill just about any role except 'healer', and maybe even that if I bring a mastermind.

The Gourds - Gin and Juice

This is not my impression. I am often asked to supply a Brute specifically, under the belief that they are adequate for tanking and better at DPS. If anything, the redheaded stepchild for power gamers is the Scrapper, who generally lack the aggro control that even a Brute supplies, have lower armor values, and whose higher DPS is not enough to make up for it.

Just dusted off this character that I made about a year ago. She is a cold/sonic defender for some reason; may have just been an experiment to see how low-key I could make the cold buffs. But she would appear to qualify.....

This is true but is somewhat misleading. At about the same time that Tankers were getting raised AoE target caps and Brute max damage was lowered slightly, the Brute also got a significant buff to fury generation and retention. The lowering of the max Brute +damage cap was a nerf to the rare situations where the brute was being buffed to the gills (6 Super reds worth of +damage), while in most situations the Brute was receiving a buff from having more fury longer. The changes were a buff to brutes 99% of the time. If DPS is your main concern you're still better off with a brute.

The Cantrips - Goodbye Yesterday

That's part of it, but not the whole story. The worst thing about the AT is that it feels tailored to be a level 50 only thing, the same issue I had with Titan Weapons. Reliance on Domination is the big thing but not the only thing. When Penny Yin or even Silver Mantis are the weeklies I don't even consider the character. So she's still an asset sink and not a producer. The same is not true of my poison/dark defender, another AT I struggled with. She is as useful at leve 15 as at level 50 and is an asset rather than a liability on my roster. I also struggle a bit with masterminds, but that's mostly a matter of choosing material that plays to their strengths, and staying out of Sharkhead.

I'd probably quit too. But if I had to cut all the accounts down to one, for general utility, I'd probably keep Baroness Munchhausen, the DPS-built spines/radiation tanker. And rename her Heraclea.....

Being older, I would have suggested Barbarella and Black Sunday. Maybe Forbidden Planet and The Blob. Needs a Steve Reeves movie too; my suggestion would be Goliath and the Barbarians.

The Five Stairsteps - O-o-h Child

You can fire Clarion if you actually get mezzed, so I tend to save it for that occasion.

I played one to 50, made a good concept, spent the inf and merits to get her to perma-dom, and hardly ever log in to the character. Perma-dom is too nervous and fussy for my style. A moment's inattention and you blew it and are back to zero. Without perma-dom the character is a weaker version of a controller with worse endurance issues. I do not enjoy the AT and have no desire to roll another.

Nancy Sinatra - Last of the Secret Agents

Wm. Parry - Lady Radnor's Suite

I pay next to zero attention to origins in my characters. Moreover, I often revise their backstories and concepts from the moment of creation until I get a better feel for how their powersets work and play. You unfortunately can't revise the origin, so I ignore it. Heraclea has always been Magic origin, but her backstory includes military training. Moreover, her original power set was Super Strength, but is now Dark Melee, a souvenir of her descent to the Underworld. (I gave her Air Superiority as a reminder of her super strength origin). And also, alchemy is part of the background of all the Amazons. The game plays fast and loose with origins as well. Consider the Clockwork. They were Technology enemies, and at the beginning if you chose Technology origin you got sent to fight Clockwork enemies. Then it turns out that they are somehow connected to the psychic power of the Clockwork King, who has some kindo of weird obsession with the psychic Penelope Yin. This isn't an inconsistency, it's just developing the story in motion. There is, however, one consistent theme in my origin choices. If your character fights with a mace, axe, sword, katana, bow, or gun, their powers are centered on using tools. This makes Technology the obvious choice for all such powersets. IIRC I made my most recent war mace brute (Bonquers) technology for this reason. Then again, Bonquers is not quite sure how her hammer works. She claims to have studied hammering at Vassar, but says that was a waste of time, because it's pretty frickin' easy.

If it's the one I am thinking of, it may be a stylized labrys or bipennis, in which case it may also be related to Infernal. I use the 'Infernal axe' superimposed on the wreath as the symbol of the Amazon Army supergroup. Or it may be meant to represent the Civil Defense logo.

FWIW I routinely use the AH for storage. So long as you are in an open zone you can call it up and store stuff in it, and no fee will be charged unless you post a sale price.

If you just want a weapon set for theme, I'd recommend Mace over Broadsword or Axe. Mace's AOE attacks are smoother and more efficient, and the defense offered by broadsword not all that great. I have 50s of all three.